Get Sugar Smart as part of Fizz Free February

Tower Hamlets Council is encouraging residents to go Fizz Free this February and ditch sugary drinks for 28 days.

As part of this month, the council is encouraging schools and individuals to sign up to SUGAR SMART and take a pledge to reduce their sugar intake as a whole. The council hopes to help residents improve their long-term health and save them money.

Residents could avoid up to a stone weight gain per year by drinking one fewer 330ml can of fizzy drink a day. Alongside this, having one fewer bottle of soft drink per day for a year could save residents £438.

The council has created simple, bespoke resources tailored for schools in Tower Hamlets, making it much easier to sign up to healthy challenges.

John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: “Reducing sugar in our diets is something we all need to work on and cutting out fizzy drinks is a great first step. This month is an opportunity to challenge the serious health implications that come with drinking too much sugar. In particular, we all want children to have the healthiest start to life as possible.”

Councillor Denise Jones, Cabinet Member for Adults Health and Wellbeing said: “Reducing the consumption of sugary drinks is a great idea for both dental health and to help tackle obesity in our borough. Give Fizz free February a try!”

Tower Hamlets has some of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the UK. Locally 20.8 per cent of four to five year olds are overweight or obese (10.6 per cent are obese or severely obese) and 42.1 per cent of 10-11 year olds are overweight or obese (27 per cent are obese or severely obese).

Shockingly, tooth decay is the leading cause for hospitalisation among five to nine year olds in the UK, with 26,000 children being hospitalised each year, equating to 500 each week.

Latest data from Public Health England shows that sugar now makes up 13.5 per cent of four to 10 year-olds and 14.1 per cent of teenagers daily calorie intake respectively, while the official recommendation is to limit sugar to no more than 5 per cent.

Residents can pledge to give up fizzy drinks for 28 days by tweeting #fizzfreefebTH.